HEMET: It’s sad about Hemet Theatre donors

I saw the Founders Circle donor list for the Valley View Foundationâs short-lived, fizzled effort to raise funds to buy the historic Hemet Theatre and transform it into a performing arts center. Two donor names made me groan.

Ellie Norton and Bettie Smith were among angel donors. Angels were contributors who quickly supplied cash at short notice when the foundation, which began its theater-saving effort in December, needed money badly. The pressure was on.

Norton and Smith both are widows. Norton has a long history as a generous, hard-working volunteer for the Assistance League of Hemacinto and the Farmerâs Fair. Smith, a former Hemet school board member, is a life-long supporter of educational causes, as was her late husband, Ted Smith. The Hemet High gym was named for him. Both women are past recipients of the Exchange Club of Hemet-San Jacintoâs prestigious Book of Golden Deeds award.

I count Norton and Smith among the most kind-hearted, generous and impressive women I know. Both provided donations to the theater-saving group headed by Sharon Deuber, who has refused to disclose information about finances. Deuber attempted to kick Jason Strain and Nick Reed off the board. Itâs a mess.

âI feel stupid,â said Smith, who gave money and asked others to donate. âI was so impressed with her. There has been talk over the years about a performing arts center. Here we had someone from the outside who was going to do something.â

Linda Krupa, a member of the Hemet City Council, said she will continue to support the restoration effort. She said Hemet attorney Bruce Wallis represents supporters of the cause in an effort to properly restructure the nonprofit foundation, determine what happened to the donated money and continue with the project. She hopes the legal work will be finished soon.

She said there are members of the theater-saving group who, like her, badly want to see the beloved structure restored and used for the arts. People have a great affection for the old building where they viewed movies as kids, frequented during teen dates and dropped off their own children for Saturday matinees. She said another motivating factor to continue is that their involvement may have influenced donors to give money. They want to correct the situation.

I hope they do. It would be awful if Norton and Smith were asked to help bail out the foundation out when money was short and immediately needed and the funds were not properly used. No wonder Krupa and stalwart donors to the arts Bill and Elena Kern will not give up. They realize they have a responsibility to generous donors like Norton and Smith.

âAbsolutely,â Krupa said. âA couple of the bigger contributors are dear friends of mine. They contributed because they knew a couple of us were passionate about it.â

The list of Founders Circle donors is posted on my blog online at www.blog.pe.com/bob-pratte. It reads like a San Jacinto Valley whoâs-who. Itâs sad so many people donated.

So far, no one besides Deuber seems to know what happened to their money. Itâs time to find out.

LICENSE PLATE POETS

I spotted several superlative personalized license plates recently. They were great, but didnât quite match my all-time favorite that I saw on a car parked along Palm Canyon Drive in Palm Springs. It read: âBKMDNO.â

One clever plate rode on the back of a shiny red Mercedes convertible in Idyllwild. It was refreshing because it was the antithesis of the image in the arts-oriented, wooded mountain village. The plate read âOC DNA.â I donât believe having a genetic connection to the land of tract homes and plastic surgery is something most Idyllwild residents would admit.

The other plate was bolted to back of a red Corvette motoring in west Hemet. It read: âRWTCNL.â It must have belonged to a busy endodontist. Who performs root canals and drives a Vette? Please let me know.

Heather Amie identified the driver of one of two cars with great plates that caught my eye in Banning. Brenda Cilos, she said, drives a van with a plate that reads âCPTWYF.â I still donât know who drives a Honda Accord I saw in Banning with a plate that says âFXEMAMA.â

So you canât guess what âBKMDNOâ represents? Hereâs a clue: Going to jail.

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